Didn't ring your bell, your clackers
broke. What a great, great song. Thank you, David. Ephesians Chapter
2. Ephesians Chapter 2. You hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins. Wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of
wrath, even as others. But God, but God who is rich in mercy. For his great love, wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ. By grace ye are saved, and hath
raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. that in the ages to come he might
show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. We know by the testimony of Holy
Scripture that faith, true saving faith, worketh by love. The Apostle James writes by divine
inspiration and tells us that faith in Christ, true saving
faith, is a faith that is demonstrated by works. He says, I'll show
you my faith by my works. The scriptures tell us that we
are to admonish God's people. that they be careful to maintain
good works. We're admonishing, we're admonished
to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior by those good works. Here the Spirit of God tells
us in Ephesians 2.10 that we are God's workmanship, God's
masterpieces. We who are born of God We who
have been given life and faith in the Lord Jesus, we who are
saved by God's free grace are his masterpieces created in Christ
Jesus unto good works, created, made new creatures in Christ
unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should
walk in them. Now, this is what that means.
All who are born of God walk in good works. Not they ought to, not this is
what they're supposed to do, but they all walk in good works. All who are born of God walk
in good works. Well, how can you say that? I
know lots of Christians who are not, who don't walk in good works.
No, you don't. No, you don't. Not believers. All who are born of God walk
in good works. I know that because this is that
to which God has foreordained us. Is that what the book said? We just read it. He hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. I take that to mean
God predestined that all who are his walk in good works. And if God predestined it, it
shall come to pass. Those who are born of God walk
in good works. But what are those good works? That's the question I want to
answer tonight. What are those good works? A while back, after preaching
a message on God's salvation, salvation by God's free grace
in Christ, announcing and insisting that believers being born of
God are saved by grace and are therefore free from the law,
a man came up to me and made this statement. If what you're
saying is true, Then if a person believes on Jesus, it's okay
for him to go out and sin all he wants to. Needless to say,
my blood began to boil. And yet that's the response I
always get from Arminians, from will worshipers, from legalistic
Calvinist, from folks who just cannot and will not turn loose
of their works and of law obedience. When men cannot refute the doctrine
of the gospel, I run into this all the time. I run into it everywhere
I go. Folks who cannot refute the doctrine
of God's free grace in Christ. Salvation by grace alone through
faith alone in Christ alone. When they cannot open the book
and show that that which we declare plainly and clearly is contrary
to the Word of God. When they can't refute the doctrine
and they refuse to bow to Holy Scripture. They refuse to bow
to the revelation of God. Their only recourse is to try
to smear the name of the gospel of the grace of God and those
who preach it. And so they hurl accusations
of licentiousness, antinomianism, lawlessness, and say, you folks
are promoting ungodliness. Why, that opens the floodgates
to sin. And folks are left free to go
and do whatever they want to and commit all the wickedness
they want to. In other words, they by their own admission declare
the only reason we behave like we do is because God won't let
us do what we really want to. We're holy. But now the only
reason for that is because we know God will get us if we don't.
We're good folks. We do what we do and we maintain
righteousness because we know If we didn't, the Lord would,
he'd get us for it. Oh, that's how you serve God. God won't have it. God won't have it. God's people
are not mercenaries and he won't have mercenary soldiers. God's
people don't serve him for what they can get out of him or because
of what they're afraid they'll get if they don't. They serve
Him willingly. Even in the law, He required
that every sacrifice, even sacrifices required by the law, be brought
willingly. First a willing heart, then it's
accepted according to what a man hath and not according to what
he hath not. God requires willing servants,
willing worshipers, willing people. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Now, I can't stop the mouths
of wicked men from what they had to say. And I don't try,
I just let them yack, go on, go on. But I want you to understand,
and I want all who hear my voice to understand, salvation is by
grace alone. God's grace in Christ is free. It is the free, sovereign, irresistible,
unalterable work of God's grace by which we are saved. Grace
planned our salvation, grace provided our salvation, grace
purchased our salvation, grace performed our salvation, grace
preserves our salvation, and grace shall have the praise of
our salvation. By grace ye are saved. Grace can't be resisted. Grace
can't be frustrated. Grace can't be destroyed. It's always effectual and it's
always free and it's always unconditional. That means if God saves you,
it doesn't depend on you. Not to get saved or to keep yourself
saved or to make yourself better saved. Salvation by grace. I want folks to understand this
as well. Good works have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with
the accomplishment, preservation, and consummation of our salvation
in Christ. Our works do not contribute anything
to our redemption, our justification, our forgiveness, our sanctification,
our glorification, or our enjoyment of life eternal in heaven above. Our works have nothing to do
with those things. And I want you to understand
this. All who are saved by God's grace walk in good works. They all do. We are sinners. Yes, we are. Sinners still after
God saves us. Every believer knows that and
acknowledges that and makes no pretense that it's not so. We're
sinners still. Sin is mixed with and mars everything
we do. everything. I got a very good
article from my friend down in Sydney, Australia, for the Peter
Barnes on prayer. We corresponded a little bit
about it this week. I have a much tougher time praying
than I do preaching. And I suppose prayer is the noblest
exercise of the believer on this earth. And our prayers are so shot full
of sin, selfishness, ungodliness, and indifference, just shot full
of it. You don't even think about calling
it a good work. Everything we do is marred and sullied by sin
so that even our works, good works, as they're called in the
book, Even our works of righteousness are as filthy rags before God
Almighty and in our own nostrils. We recognize that. And yet, believers
do, throughout the tenor of their lives, walk in good works. Believers carefully strive to
maintain those works on earth in their lives and throughout
their lives that glorify God. And there's no in between Graham,
Merle Hart, I'm either lying to you or I'm telling you the
truth. I want God's glory. And I want to honor him in my
life more than I want my next breath. Now that's either true or it's
a lie. And it's been that way for 44
blessed years. Believers seek to glorify God
in all things. We're not motivated by law. We're
not motivated by fear. We're not motivated by greed.
The love of Christ constrains us. God saved me by his marvelous
free grace. He snatched me from the pits
of hell. and sent me in the kingdom of
his dear son. Now, that's the motive. That's the
motive. That's the inspiration. But what
are those good works? Does the word of God tell us
what they are? Churches and religions, every
brand under the shining sun, Buddhist and Baptist, Papist
and Pentecostals, Mohammedans and Methodists, every brand,
all religions, all churches make up lists of works and they call
them good works. Baptist churches used to, some
of them still do, you have a church covenant hanging on the wall.
They had one at church lookout for nine years. I'd point to
that thing and I'd say, that's what that says, that's what the
book says. What stupidity. Rules and regulations. These
are good works. These are the things that identify
us as good Christians. These are godly things. And they
make a list of do's and don'ts. And they measure godliness by
what you do and don't do. By what you eat. By what you
wear. by the places you go, by the
whether or not you go to the movie shows or have a television
in your house or if you have a television in your house, do
you just watch old westerns like Gunsmoke or do you watch modern
things that are questionable? And they make rules and regulations
and they tell you that you're godly if you do, you're ungodly
if you don't. You're ungodly if you don't do
this and you're godly if you don't do the other thing. But
all of those things that men call good works, every last one
of them are without foundation in this book. The kingdom of God is not. Now,
this is shocking to some folks. The kingdom of God is not in
meat and in drinks. It's just not. It's just not. But in righteousness and peace
and joy in the Holy Ghost. But they're shocking. Well, I
thought, Brother Don, if you was a Christian, then
you weren't supposed to watch television. I thought if you
was a Christian, you weren't supposed to drink wine. I thought
if you was a Christian, you weren't supposed to chew tobacco. I know,
I know. We all love to set rules and
say this is what godliness is and I can do it. Watch me. Watch
me. And then we see David Peterson
over there. Did you see him? Well, now, but the David needs
some help. And we'll make some more rules
and see if we can't get Brother David to obey them. Because he
needs to be the kind of Christian I am. Does the Word of God give us
a clear, plain declaration of what these good works are that
God's people walk in? Many people think they're doing
good works, works for God by living austere lives of strict
separation from the world. And they strictly obey certain
self-imposed rules and regulations or the rules and regulations
of churches and preachers and customs and traditions by which
they make void the word of God and they think they're maintaining
good works. Most people think that outward deeds of morality,
outward deeds of obedience to the law of God, outward performances
of religious duties are good works. Religious people vainly
imagine that you can measure godliness by things you see. And they do it all the time.
They do it all the time. And they measure themselves by
other people. But that which men call good
works are things that men do in every branch of religion where
God is blasphemed as well as where God is worshipped. They can be performed by believing
men or by unbelieving men. Let me give you some examples.
I can't tell you how many times I've heard folks say things like
this. When God saved me, he took the tip out of my toes and I
quit dancing. Well, that's all right. It's all right not to dance.
I'm not suggesting that you all go join a dance team. But the
first time I get a chance to take my wife someplace and teach
her ballroom dancing and me learn it with her, you know what we're
going to do? We're going to go dancing. I used to love to dance and still
would, but she wasn't allowed to when she was growing up. So
she's in for a treat. Man, when she hits 70, we'll go dancing. Lord saved
me, and I laid down those camels just like that. I knew that's
what was right. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that
amazing? And yet, I know folks who served
God all their lives. I know some good preachers who
steal a lot of camels as soon as they get done preaching. I
know some. Oh, no. Yeah, I know some. I know some. God saved me and I knew I had
to cut my beard off. It's all right, ladies, to wear
your beard. It's all right. As long as Diane approves, I
do. What foolishness. You can do all those things if
you're a Mohammedan or if you're a Christian. It doesn't take
grace of God and spirit of God to do any of them. If you want
to quit drinking, you can join Alcoholics Anonymous and they
teach you how. If you want to quit taking dope, all you got
to do is suffer enough for it and you'll quit. I promise you.
I promise you. You want to straighten up your
life, been living like hell? It doesn't take the grace of
God to straighten up your life. Oh, no. Oh, no. Lots of folks
spent some time in prison and decided they didn't want to go
back. It doesn't take the grace of God to change that. Well,
then what is godliness? If those things aren't godliness,
what is it? I ask again, what are those good
works? I want to show you from the book
of God. Good works that can't be imitated by the unbeliever. Good works that every believer
walks in from the day of his new birth to his consummation
of life in glory. Good works. That all believers
walk in as long as they live in this world walking with God
by faith in Christ Jesus Good works of faith I'll give you
five of them First turn to Zechariah chapter 12 Zechariah chapter
12 and I want you to see clearly that what I'm saying is exactly
what the book teaches There'll be folks who stand in
the day of judgment and say, Lord, Lord, have we not done
many good works in your name? We've cast out devils in your
name. We prophesied in your name. We've we've done this. We've
done that. The apostle Paul said he was
obedient to the law from his youth up, just like that rich
young ruler who came to the Lord Jesus. Indeed, many suppose that
he was that rich young ruler who came to the Lord Jesus. Well,
you mean you could keep the commandments and the outward obedience to
the law and not be a believer? Lots of folks do it. Lots of
folks do it. Well, what are good works? Here's
the first one. Every heaven-born soul, every
saved sinner, everyone who trusts the Lord Jesus lives in repentance
before God continually. Repentance is not something we
have done. It is a way of life. It is a state of being with God's
people. I have repented. I am repenting
and I shall repent. I repent of my sin. That's what
I am. I repent of my sins. That's the
evil that I do because of what I am. And I repent of my righteousness. My prayers, I pray about. My tears need to be wept over. I repent of my righteousnesses
as well. Look here in Zechariah chapter
12, verse 10. The Lord God says, I will pour
upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
That is, I'll pour out upon mine elect, my covenant people, the
spirit of grace and supplications. And here's the result. And they
shall look upon me whom they have pierced. They'll believe
on the son of God. And they shall mourn for him
as one mourneth for his only son. Repentance is not a qualifying
condition of faith. Repentance is the accompanying
grace of faith. Repentance comes not by law,
not by fear, not by dread, not by terror. Repentance comes by
the revelation of Christ in your soul. You can fake repentance. You
can repent like Jimmy Swaggart when he got caught fooling around
with prostitutes and bawl, cry, big crocodile tears, and just
impress everybody. Oh, look how sincere he is. Or you can repent like that Wiener
fellow, whatever he was up in New York, when he got caught
sending pictures of himself and lying. And you're just, oh, well,
I don't think anybody even thought he was sincere. But you can fake
it. You can fake it. You can fake
repentance. But repentance, a turning of
your heart against yourself. A turning of your heart to side
with God against yourself. The hatred of what you are, that
comes by the revelation of Christ in you. by faith in Christ. And it never lets up. It never diminishes. It just
continues. Brother Allen read the 32nd Psalm. And he said, David said, I will,
I said, I will confess the iniquity of my sin. And then he said,
thou forgave us the iniquity of my sin. For this shall all
that are godly pray unto thee. All the godly pray continually
for forgiveness All the godly pray continually that God will
pardon their iniquities all the godly continually confess and
acknowledge their sins Not just their evil deeds, but what they
are if we confess our sin he's faithful and just to forgive
us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and
Second, second, turn to first John chapter four, verse 19. Every believer walks in love, not a sham pretense of love,
not a showy wordy love, but love for God and his people. Every believer does. This is
his commandment that we should believe on his son and love one
another as he gave us commandment. John says here in 1 John 4, 19,
we love him because he first loved us. Our Lord said, by this
shall all men know that you're my disciples if you have love
one to another. If any men love not the Lord
Jesus, let him be damned. Christ is coming. That's the
language of scripture. In this day, people talk about
and brag about and don't hesitate to speak of their love for Christ.
And it's easy enough to stand up in the congregation and sing,
oh, how I love Jesus. But the only way love for Christ
can be seen is in love for his people. Look at 1 John chapter
3, verse 16. The only way the love for Christ
can be seen is in love for his people. And
believers, all believers love one another. Hereby perceive
we the love of God because he laid down his life for us. And
we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But who so
hath this world's good and seeth his brother have need and shutteth
up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of
God in him. My little children, let us not
love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And
hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our
hearts before him. This brotherly love is not Something
that you can't identify. It's identified by very specific
things. Love provides for its objects. No matter the cost. Love provides for its object.
Man loves his wife, loves his children. If he has to work three
jobs, he just works three jobs. That's all. I've done it. Most of you have done it. When
you have time for yourself, that doesn't matter. That doesn't
matter. That doesn't come into consideration.
Well, no time to go play ball. Man, I've got a wife. I'm not
just playing ball. I've got two children to take care of. That's
a little more important than playing ball. Love provides for
its object. God's people see to it that they
provide for one another's needs. Love protects. Love protects. I haven't been involved in physical
conflict with anyone since I was 16 years old. But I've come close
a few times. And you know when it was? When
somebody did something that in some way threatened that lady
sitting right there. And if it hadn't been prevented,
there would have been somebody hurting. How come? Because love protects. It protects. Love covers weakness and flaw
and sin. I'm just being honest. I won't
tell you what David Colbert did. No, that's being hateful. That's being hateful. Well, how
can you say that? I didn't. God did. Hatred stirreth
up strifes. But love covereth all sins. Brother Bobby, did you hear what
Brother Don did last week? Oh, no, that's a mistake. No,
no, cover that up. Oh, you can't do that. Now, if
you're honest, Shem and Japheth took a cover and went in backwards
and covered Noah's shame. and would not talk about it.
Ham, the reprobate man that he was, uncovered his father's nakedness
and pointed it out to others. Sham and Japheth, God's people,
loved their father Noah. Love covers, love excuses. Love will find a way to put everything
in its best light. It does. This does. You may see
me out of sorts and behave in a way that you think, well, that
seems strange. What's happened to Brother Don? If you get alone with Shelby
and talk to her about it, you'll have a totally different attitude
about it, I promise you. I promise you. How come? Because
she's going to defend me. She's going to defend me. How can you be sure of that?
I've been married to her for 42 years and she's done a lot
of defending and a lot of covering. A lot of it. Why would a woman
do that? It's called love. And that's
how believers deal with each other. How they deal with each
other. They don't spread rumors and
lies and gossip and not even truth when it's evil. No. Keep
it to yourself. Just keep it to yourself. Well,
I feel like Brother Bob needs to know that. Not for me, he
doesn't. Not for me, he doesn't. Love forgives and forbears and
forgives and forbears and forgives and forbears and forgives and
forbears. That's the reason you and your
wife have been living together as long as you have. Because
you and her forgive and forbear. Forgive and forbear. Forgive
and forbear. I recall a few years back, a
congregation very dear to me split right down the middle.
One group went one side of town, one the other side of town. I
went down and met with them both. And I said to those men, would
you Tear your family up over this? Would you throw your wife and
children out over this? Well, no. But you're willing
to tear up God's church over this? I suggest you get over
it. And thank God they did. They
did. Love forgives and forbears. Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake
hath forgiven you. Number three, faith in Christ
teaches the believer to live in submission. Faith is submission to Christ
as my Lord, the continual submission of myself
to him. Faith is walking in the spirit,
living in the spirit, and walking in the spirit is walking in submission. Turn over to Ephesians 5. It's submitting my will to his
will. submitting to his word, his doctrine,
his ordinances. And this submission to Christ
as my Lord shows itself in a very practical way. Believing children
submit to their parents. Believing children do. Believing
wives submit to their husbands. Well, that's archaic. It's still
true. Believing wives do. They submit
to their husbands. Believing men submit to God-ordained
authority. You're not going to find them
staring up anarchy. They submit. Believers submit to God's servants
who are given to rule over them by the Word of God. You come
in here and hear the Word of God and sometimes your pastor
opens up a wound and pours in the salt and doesn't give any
ointment at all, and you say, thank you, I needed that. Believers
submit to God's servants. Submission for believers is a
way of life, just a way of life. Look here in Ephesians 5 verse
18. Be not drunk with wine wherein
is excess, but be ye filled with the Spirit. Controlled by God's
Spirit. What's that mean? That means
you throw songbooks across the room and jump across pews and
fall over the floor and wallow around and start talking in tongues.
No. No. What is be filled with the Spirit?
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making melody in
your heart to the Lord. Giving thanks always for all
things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Watch this now. Submitting yourselves to one
another in the fear of God. Submitting. Each esteeming other
better than himself. Each having on his mind and heart
the things of others. the needs of others, the cares
of others, rather than his own. Who's going to look out for me?
Another brother. Another believer. Believers live
submitting themselves one to another. Giving way to a brother. Just giving way. Just giving
way. I walk in a door. And if there's
a lady coming up behind me, young or old, if I see her, I stop
and open the door. Old boy did that and said, just
because I'm a lady doesn't mean you have to open the door for
me. He said, you being a lady or not being a lady got nothing
to do with it. That's just what we do. Gentlemen, you know, you
open doors for ladies. You just do it. You open the
door for them. What do you mean? I step out of the way and you
go in. It's just called courtesy. For
believers, That's a way of life. Just step out of the way, let
Brother Bob walk by instead. Just step out of the way and
let Joyce go by. Just shut up and let somebody
else be heard. Submit. Number four, believers,
all believers, people who trust Christ alone as their Lord and
Savior, persevere to the end. He that endureth to the end,
our Savior said, shall be saved. The righteous shall hold on his
way. He that hath clean hands shall
be stronger and stronger. John said, they went out from
us, but they were not of us. If they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out from
us that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. Look here in Hebrews chapter
10. Hebrews chapter 10. Verse 38. Now the just shall live by faith.
But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in
him. But we, we are not of them that draw
back unto perdition. but of them that believe to the
saving of the soul. You see, the believer, the person who's born of God
and taught of God, comes to Christ to begin with because he knows
he's got to have Christ. Sam Wall, I've got to have his
righteousness. I've got to have his blood. I've
got to have his intercession. I've got to have His grace. I've
got to have Him. I can't live without Him. And
now, 44 years down the road, more than ever before, I've got
to have His righteousness. I've got to have His blood. I've
got to have His intercession. I've got to have His grace. I've
got to have Him. I can't live without Him. Believers keep on believing. They persevere unto the end. As they receive Christ Jesus
the Lord, so they walk with Him right into eternity. All right,
what are these good works which all believers perform? And walk in all the days of their
lives. Repentance, love, submission,
Perseverance. And Romans chapter 9, chapter
10, rather verse 9, one more. Romans chapter 10, skip down
to verse 13. All believers, all who are born
and taught of God, worship him in spirit and in truth. Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. That doesn't mean if you see
somebody in an accident out here, you run up to them and they're
bleeding to death, they're trapped in the car and ambulance can't
get to them and you run up to them and you warn them not to
go to hell and tell them they need to be saved, well, you call
on the name of the Lord and you say, well, what did I say? You
say, Jesus saved me, kind of like a papist giving last rites,
then that's salvation. No, that's not what that means.
To call on the name of the Lord is to worship him. To worship him. And believers
do. We are the circumcision who worship
God in spirit and in truth. We worship God. Everywhere. In all things. I started to say all the time.
And in a sense, that's true. Because he's going to teach us,
no matter where we are, no matter the circumstances, to bow to him. And that's what
worship is. It's bowing to God. Bowing to
God. Bowing to God. There's one example
of this. Let me give it to you and I'll
wrap this up. Mark chapter 14. One example of a work in which
all these five works are demonstrated. One example of a good work. Our
Lord is in the house of Simon the leper. And a woman comes up behind him with
an alabaster box of ointment, worth a year's wages. She's been
a, she's been a woman of reputation. And this woman understood that
the Lord Jesus is about to die for her. She understood what
nobody else in the room understood, just him and her. And she knew
he had forgiven her of her sins. And she comes to him with a broken
heart of repentance. And she bows to him in loving
adoration. and washes his feet with her
tears and wipes them with the hairs of her head, kisses him, bowing in utter submission to
him. She has believed Christ and believes
him now at the very end of his days on this earth. She persevered
in faith. And she opens this alabaster
box of ointment, this precious spikenard, and anointed him for
his burial. And in verse 6, the master said,
you leave her alone now, for she hath wrought a good work
on me. Joe, that's the only time in
this book God ever refers to anything a man did and calls
it a good work. The only time. He said, wherever
the gospel of the kingdom of God is preached, this story is
going to be told as a memorial to this lady. But what did she
do? She did what she could, just for Christ, and she had
opportunity to do it. because she loved him, that's
all. Now, go children of God through
the world, believe in Christ and walk before him as God has
ordained in good works of repentance and love and submission and perseverance
and worship. Tomorrow, whatever comes your
way, whatever news is waiting on you when you get home tonight,
bow to Him in repentance. Love Him. Submit to Him. Continue in the
faith. Worship Him. And you will do
well all the days of your life. We need some rules. No, we don't need some rules. We need grace, constant grace. Amen.